[Poruku]

Although kensei is an awesome class with some arguably strong tools, there are many things holding it back that are difficult to get around.

1: Swords are bad at crit.
The issue isn't that sword crit builds can't work, it's just that you're never gonna get the damage of a dagger or axe. Many kensei players end up getting 40+ luck but only about 15 guile, sometimes a bit more. And it makes sense when the only real reason you need crit at all is so that your wazabane, riposte and sidecut can proc fleur. The crits of a sword user are just never gonna compare unless they build good guile, which is really rough on the stats. For Kensei, this simply means their damage is not gonna be as high as it could be. Of course, swords are pretty good for SWA skills, like hirazuki. So that's a strength of kensei. But kensei can't really afford to go non-crit without feeling terrible. At that point just build some kind of DH or BK.

2: Kensei lacks evade.
Despite the addition of a +10 evade buff, Kensei is still unable to get enough evade on its own. This wouldn't be so bad if Kensei wasn't so demanding on your momentum. This ties into the next point.

3: Kensei offensive skills.
Much of Kensei's power lies in its combos. Wazabane into a hirazuki into anything is some pretty spicy damage on a single target. It's nowhere near as good as the average twin dance user or even the average crit build, and the problem is that it's very specific. Basically, you need the enemy to be in the right place at the start of your turn in order to get much done. The addition of some flexibility to these skills with the recent update definitely helped, but I feel like the issue with those is that you're consuming a really useful buff to get it (except when you have perfect poise). Flottement especially is so amazing on sidecut you don't really wanna waste it on something else. All in all, this means that Kensei's main strength (its combos) isn't always possible to pull off. You can be the best Kensei player on planet earth, you can't exactly engage a dude who's over there in a weird diagonal. Your best option is perhaps rabbit leap wazabane, but if you miss the crit you just lost your whole turn dealing like 94 damage.

4: Kensei is so much better with evade
Duelist is a weird class. Because it benefits so massively from evade due to flottement and poise, but it has no way of boosting it. Kensei is also a class that benefits from evade, and the evade stance is genuinely amazing. But this locks Kensei evaders into picking up rogue or bonder if they want to cap evade due to lack of duelist/kensei evade buffs. Meaning kensei build variety is quite limited. Personally I think any class should have some sort of evade buffs in this economy (and a few hit buffs too) but that's not really the discussion here.

All in all the point being made is that Kensei's weaknesses outweigh its strengths far too much. It's a clunky class that requires you to have an enemy in front of you to do anything decent, while other classes just use their skills or attack in whatever way works best. And their damage is also not amazing due to sword crit, so that weakness doesn't make that much sense.

Here's a list of my suggestions. No need to implement all of them:
- Give a skill similar to Ruler's Patient Scourge, giving them a buff to crit and crit damage when they land combos. Since the Kensei gameplay encourages using combos, this would mean your wazabane would do actually good damage even though you only use it once per turn.
- Give them a small active evade buff they can pop at battle start. Or incorporate an extra evade buff into their kit somehow.
- Shunpo: A long range movement option similar to haunting but also allows you to trigger kensei combo with the next move. Could even apply sakki if you land behind someone. However, it would have a 3 round cooldown.
- +1 range to all their moves would honestly be such a great boost to their playability.
- Perhaps another means to buff the range of their moves would be nice too. For instance, sheathe sword could give another buff that makes kagekiri a flexible line but with extra range too.
- Maybe we could make kensei better at deflecting ranged attacks. In anime, swordsmen can deflect literally anything with a sword. So why not change bullet barrier into a more general skill that can reduce the damage of all ranged attacks? This would give Kensei a much needed edge against builds that can easily kite them.

[Snake]

My take on those suggestions:

Higanbana

Passive Skill

The Red Spider Lily technique, also known as 'Death by a Thousand Papercuts'. For every Kensei Combo you trigger, you gain or power up 'Higanbana' for 5 rounds. (Wazabane will not activate this.)

Higanbana Strike - Increases Critical and Critical Damage of your next, non-Wazabane basic attack by LV * 5. If the attack critically hits, it may inflict Lingering Damage (Slash) LV (Higanbana LV% of the target's max HP, max. LV = Kensei Class Level * 2) for LV * 2 rounds.

Tsubame-Gaeshi

Defensive Skill, 1+M

The swallow-cutter technique, which turns the enemy's momentum against themselves. On use, you'll enter a counter-attacking stance, increasing your Evade by 10 per momentum used. Every time you avoid an attack, you swiftly move to slash all other enemies within 5 Range of the attacker, dealing protection-ignoring bonus Slash damage equal to your bonus Evade.

Shunpo

Utility Skill, 2M, 3 round CD.

A honed version of the Martial Artist's flash-step technique. Target a location within 4 range and teleport towards it, facing the closest enemy. If the location you choose is adjacent to an enemy, the momentum is fully refunded.

Trickery: Gain Spirit Mirror for 1 round, if you do not have it active and are wearing Unarmored Torso.

[Shujin]

The problem with Kensei is, that it has zero survival power, while at the same time, not really dealing more damage than the other promos.

Ghost is sadly almost always the way better pick. CC for damage, WG last chance and rebound are all great survival tools+ the extra HP it gets..

Kensei is just flashy and cool, but its rarely worth picking for how limited it is, in its execution.

Not saying it can't deal alot of damage, it absolutely can. Its just doesn't bring enough to the table and usually falls short versus its counterparts. So having atleast something to help it survive, even if its just some more evade, would go along way.

[Autumn]

Kenseis often care more about the big number than reducing any other numbers, that's the class fantasy alongside looking sick while doing their combos. They technically have a class DR in the form of Ogata's Waraji but thats pushing it just a little. The Miragewalk changes helped with their current evade amounts a lot so I think defensively they're a lot more fine since those changes. Really only Kensei could benefit from base Duelist getting a buff to Disengage as I think Disengage isn't that good right now.

Really just what Kensei needs is a better ability to "Big Number" and thats it, they should be on par with a Void Assassin as a glass cannon DPS in my eyes, one such suggestion I could think of is a main class passive that allows them to critically hit with their skills as well, for like a 25% damage increase.

Katana Master should probably give a critical damage increase to Katanas as well, matching Deadly Arms for a 25% increase to critical damage.

I think Kensei is actually above average and there are far more worse off classes than it, even if Kensei mains are the loudest about their complaints. A lot of them are very valid, but this class is very close to being perfectly balanced, closer than anyone really thinks.

[Raigen.Convict]

I agree with Autumn. No class should, in a dual class system, be strong enough to play solo without drawbacks. So kensei lacking survival is fine but they just need better damage to compensate so it has an actual place.

[Shujin]

I dunno, to me Kensei/samurai are quick and dodgy, so I think survival power in form of Evade would be neat. But yeah, I don't mind a "Bigger Number" buff. Kensei currently lacks in both regions, and some of its best features are locked either behind using a soldier promo to use Watchful eye, or playing a Bunny. Them having their own "turning around" feature to actually make use of Sheath Sword, would be neat.

[Kazzy]

The issue with Kensei isn't the class. The class is like, 85-95% fine.


The problem is it's forced into using weapons that aren't good. Most katanas have bad scaling compared to the 'good' swords that actually work, or have boring effects that don't ACTUALLY  do anything of note.

If I were to overhaul anything, it wouldn't be Kensei. It'd be Katanas as a weapon. Or I'd slap a bandaid on it in the form of letting a sword blade change subtype to Katana.

[Poruku]

A class can have "issues" and still be good, it just needs a strength. Any kind of buff to kensei would be welcome, but what they lack is definitely some sort of niche, something that sets them apart to make up for their drawbacks. Personally I think Kensei would be awesome if the gameplay of doing combos and such was combined with a "finisher" system similar to boxer. So you're doing the sacred art, you're doing the kensei combos, you're applying the debuffs and using the stances... What if there was a big hitting skill that consumed the debuffs? That'd be awesome.

Definitely the glaring thing about kensei is that it looks like a class that is supposed to do good damage but it's simply outclassed in that department by other classes that have less weaknesses. So yeah that does sound awesome.

I don't think katanas are really a big problem with kensei. It's just kinda annoying, but there's some decent katanas. It just makes for another drawback to a class with no upside.

[Senna]

It's been a while since I've posted on the forum. Kensei is perfectly fine via the info I sum from my class stress tests. It doesn't exactly need another evade buff? It's more that you just need to find another class or items to complete the 50. Scales and Pace is like 25. Just have to fiend for the extra 25. It's a class with a debuff and fear with some debuff applying even if you missed a direct hit. So yeah, you'll live. It has enough utility and damage to make up for it.

Besides, going off weapon point, sure, we might need some of the Katanas to get buffed though players can operate just fine with other things until then. Hisen, Wo-Dao, Fuuma, Homura, Braver, Tarnada, and insert other meta-katana here are more than enough to hold it down until the Jins get looked at again.

[Poruku]

I've found the solution, let's give kensei skills the ability to crit